Intercolumniation

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The Four Books of Andrea Palladio's Architecture, London 1738

In architecture, intercolumniation is the spacing between columns in a colonnade, as measured at the bottom of their shafts.[1] In classical, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture, intercolumniation was determined by a system devised by the 1st century BC Roman architect Vitruvius.[2] Vitruvius compiled standard intercolumniations for the three classical Greek orders, expressed in terms of the column diameter,[1] twice the Vitruvian module, and he warned that when columns are placed three column-diameters apart or more, stone architraves break.[3]

[edit] Standard intercolumniations

The standard intercolumniations are:[4]

Pycnostyle 
One and a half diameters
Systyle 
Two diameters
Eustyle 
Two and a quarter diameters, considered by Vitruvius to be the best proportion[5]
Diastyle 
Three diameters
Araeostyle 
Four or more diameters, requiring a wooden architrave rather than one of stone
Araeosystyle 
Alternating araeostyle and systyle

[edit] See also

[edit] References


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